The Controller and Auditor General of Tanzania, Charles E. Kichere, and the Auditor General of Uganda, Edward Akol, visited the East African Crude Oil Pipeline's Marine Tanks Terminal and Spread 16 construction site in Tanga, in a joint oversight delegation welcomed by EACOP. The visit gave both countries' supreme audit institutions a direct look at physical progress on the pipeline project's critical export infrastructure at the Tanzanian coast.
The Marine Tanks Terminal in Tanga is EACOP's designated crude oil storage and loading point, where oil produced from Uganda's Lake Albert fields will be held before export via tanker. Spread 16 refers to one of the construction spreads along the pipeline route, indicating that ground-level civil and mechanical work is sufficiently advanced to warrant formal government audit inspection. The fact that auditors general from both sovereign states conducted a joint site visit signals active parliamentary and fiscal accountability engagement with the project at the highest institutional level.
For a project of EACOP's scale — a cross-border crude oil pipeline stretching from Uganda through Tanzania to the coast — sustained government oversight is a material project-execution signal. Audit scrutiny of this kind typically accompanies projects where public finances, state-owned enterprise involvement, or sovereign guarantees are at stake. Both Uganda and Tanzania have national oil companies and government equity stakes in the pipeline, making audit engagement a standard governance requirement rather than an exceptional event. The auditors' commendation of progress, as characterised in the EACOP release, suggests that on-site construction and financial management were presented to the delegations in a satisfactory state.
EACOP, which is backed by TotalEnergies, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), has faced sustained financing and legal challenges since its announcement, with several international banks declining to provide project finance under environmental and social pressure. Construction has nonetheless continued under equity financing from the partners. The Tanga terminal and associated marine infrastructure represent the downstream anchor of the entire value chain, and visible construction progress at Spread 16 alongside a functional terminal site is a concrete indicator that the export end of the pipeline is advancing.
Norwegian service companies tracking EACOP should treat this visit as a governance and momentum signal rather than a procurement trigger. No contract awards, tenders, or financial investment decisions are referenced in this report. The project remains in active construction, and the audit visit confirms institutional engagement at state level, but Norwegian suppliers should continue monitoring contractor award announcements and subcontractor prequalification processes through the EACOP project office and its primary EPC partners before initiating direct procurement outreach.